Summer Spare the Air Season is upon us! Get Spare the Air Alerts & other air quality information sent directly to your phone with the iSmog App.
During the summer months, ozone levels in the Bay Area can exceed Federal health-based standards. The Air District’s Spare the Air program issues alerts to let residents know when air quality is expected to be unhealthy. Beyond encouraging people to drive less on high-pollution days, Spare the Air alerts provide critical information for people who suffer from asthma or other respiratory problems.
With 511CC’s free iSmog app for iPhone, you’ll receive Spare the Air alerts and be able to display air quality information for the Bay Area as an easy-to-understand map. Users with allergies or other environmental sensitivities are able to customize air quality notifications based on their level of sensitivity & geographic area.
Download the iSmog app for iPhone, or visit the SpareTheAir.org for more information on how to stay updated on Bay Area air quality.
Tag: ismog
Today, Tuesday June 21, 2011 is a Spare the Air Day
Today is Spare the Air Day. When hot temperature and light winds combine to produce poor air quality for the Bay Area, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District issues a Spare the Air Day alert. To help prevent smog, please consider:
- carpooling or vanpooling
- taking transit
- working from home
- linking errands together
More:
Spare the Air Smog season begins for Bay Area (2010)
On Monday, May 3, 2010, Spare the Air announced the beginning of Smog season for the Bay Area. During the summer months, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will issue Spare the Air Smog Alerts when the air quality forecast is considered to be unhealthy.
For more information about air pollution in the Bay Area, visit the Spare the Air website at www.sparetheair.org. You can also get air quality information and Spare the Air alerts delivered to your mobile device by downloading our free iPhone application, iSmog.
Spare the Air Alert Ends for the 2009-2010 Winter Season
[Photo by mattboschetti]
On February 28, 2010 the Winter Spare the Air season ended. Winter Spare the Air alerts will resume beginning November 1, 2010. After this day, it will be illegal to burn wood during Winter Spare the Air alerts.
However, residents who do burn in a fireplace our outdoor fire pit must still burn cleanly using dry seasoned firewood and not burn garbage, leaves or other material that would cause excessive smoke. Residents who exceed the excessive visible smoke provision in the wood burning rule could still be subject to an air district ticket or fine. For more information about the Wood-Burning Rule, visit Spare the Air’s official website.
Related: Read more about iSmog for iPhone, a free application that delivers Spare the Air alerts to your phone. The application also displays air quality information for all five Bay Area air basins.
Monitor Air Quality in the Bay Area with iSmog – a free application for iPhone
The effects of particle pollution are serious. According to the American Lung Association, the particles are so small they bypass the body’s natural defenses and lodge deep in the lungs. Click here to view a short video clip on particle pollution.
However, the good news is that Spare the Air regulation does work in the Bay Area. According to Jack Broadbent, executive officer for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District:
Fine particles in wood smoke produce the same kinds of health effects as diesel exhaust pollution.
Continue reading “Monitor Air Quality in the Bay Area with iSmog – a free application for iPhone”
Monitor Bay Area Air Quality With Our iSmog iPhone Application
511 Contra Costa is proud to announce the release of its very first iPhone app – iSmog!
iSmog displays air quality information for the San Francisco Bay Area. With just a tap of the screen, users will see an easy-to-understand map of environmental quality in the Bay Area’s five air basins, built using data provided by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). With this information, commuters can make more informed choices about environmentally friendly transportation options, and members of sensitive groups will be better able to stay abreast of information that can be, literally, life-or-death.
Push notification alerts users with allergies or other environmental sensitivities when the air contains unhealthy levels of contaminants including ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and two sizes of particulate matter, all precursors of ozone. Notifications can be customized by level of sensitivity and by geographic area.
Read more about iSmog here: https://511contracosta.org/ismog/
